Christmas trivia: How well will you do?

I have always enjoyed trivia, so I wanted to change the pace going into the holiday and offer up some educational trivia.

Try your luck!

Question #1 – I love candy, I eat way too much during each of the biggest candy holidays. According to the National Confectioners Association, put the seasons in order which producers the highest number of candy sales.

Halloween
Easter
Valentine’s Day
Christmas Day

Question #2 – What is the biggest selling Christmas single of all time?

White Christmas
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Silent Night
Jingle Bells

Question #3 – What is the most popular tree topper?

Star
Christ
Angel
Santa Claus

Question #4
– Who or what organization began this tradition of Christmas Cards?

U.S. Postal Service
President James Polk
W.C.T. Dobson
Queen Victoria


Question #5 – Who wrote the song “White Christmas” for the film “Holiday Inn?”
Rogers & Hammerstein
John Scott Trotter Orchestra
Ken Darby
Irving Berlin

Question #6 – Why was December 25TH chosen as Christmas Day?
The Winter Solstice In Northern Europe
The Birthday of Christ
The Birthday of Saint Nicholas
Roman Mid-Winter festival Satalis

Question #7 – Who started the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe?

Don Juan
Ancient Druids
Sima Xiangru
Origin Unknown

Question #8 – What department store created “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?

Montgomery Ward
J.C. Penney
Sears
Macy’s

Question #9 – What popular carol was composed quickly on guitar because the church organ broke down on Christmas Eve?

Joy To The World
Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
Silent Night
Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Question #10 – Where did the custom of a decorated Christmas tree begin?

Germany
France
United States
Italy

ANSWERS

Question #1

Halloween 34%
Easter 29%
Christmas Day 21%
Valentine’s Day 16%

Question #2
WHITE CHRISTMAS – Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of the Irving Berlin penned “White Christmas” is the biggest selling single of all time. The song has sold in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. The nearest competition is Elton John’s remake of “Candle In the Wind”, which he released as a tribute to Lady Diana in 1997.

Question #3
ANGEL – The most popular tree topper is the angel, followed by the star. If viewed in a Christian context, the tree topper usually signifies the Christmas Star (Star of Bethlehem) or angelic hosts which proclaimed the news of the birth of Jesus to the world on the eve of his birth.

Question #4
W. C. T. DOBSON – The first Christmas card came about at nearly the same time as the first Valentine’s Day card. In 1844, W. C. T. Dobson sent out a hand-drawn sketch as a Christmas greeting, instead of his usual Christmas letter. Dobson was the head of the Birmingham School of Design, and many followed his lead developing what is now known as a Christmas card.

Question #5
IRVING BERLIN – He wrote the song in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942

Question #6
WINTER SOLSTICE – The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336 A.D. in the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December. This date was probably chosen because the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan Roman mid-winter festivals called ‘Saturnalia’ and ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’ took place in December.

Question #7
ANCIENT DRUIDS – The ancient Druids consider the plant to have miraculous powers, which could cure illness, serve as an antidote against poisons, ensure fertility and protect a person against witchcraft. It was also believed that mistletoe was an aphrodisiac or a sexual symbol.
In some cultures, the mistletoe was symbolic of peace, love and goodwill. The modern day tradition of kissing under the mistletoe stems from Norse mythology. A Norse goddess declared mistletoe as a sacred plant to symbolize love rather than death that, as the myth goes, it previously stood for. Being a symbol of love, kissing under the mistletoe naturally became a tradition.

Question #8
MONGOMERY WARD – 1949: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by U.S. songwriter Johnny Marks, 40, who has adapted a verse written in 1939 by his brother-in-law, Robert L. May, for a Montgomery Ward promotional children’s book.

Question #9 
SILENT NIGHT – In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg where they were to perform the story of Christ’s birth in the small Church of St. Nicholas.

Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas’ church organ wasn’t working and would not be repaired before Christmas. The actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. The Christmas presentation put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. Instead of walking straight to his house that night, Mohr took a longer way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the village.

Recalling his thoughts about the Christmas play suddenly made him to remember a poem he had written a couple of years before. Mohr decided those words would make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. However, he didn’t have any music to which that poem could be sung. The next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar.

Question #10
GERMANY – The custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be traced to 16th century Northern Germany, though neither an inventor nor a single town can be identified as the sole origin for the tradition. The tradition spread rapidly throughout Germany and abroad. It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, that it spread rapidly and grew into a general German custom.

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